“We looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, this ain’t us,’” infielder Carter Graham said. “Even though playoff contention is out of the picture, we can prove that we’re a pretty good ball club.”
The Dragons finished that series with a Sunday victory, ensuring a more enjoyable bus ride home. They were confident they could finish the season well, but they couldn’t have guessed they had started a historic run.
The Dragons returned to Dayton and swept six games from Peoria. After hitting a sacrifice fly in extra innings to finish the sweep, outfielder Anthony Stephan saw at least seven games into the future.
“We’re just going to keep this momentum,” he said after the game, “and, hell, we might win these next 12 games.”
The Dragons went to Fort Wayne next and swept another six-game series to extend the winning streak to 13 games and tie the team record. Back in Dayton on Tuesday and facing Lansing again, the Dragons rallied to take the lead in the eighth inning and extend the streak to a franchise-record 14 games, 4-3 over Lansing.
“The fact that maybe we were so far behind, the guys just stopped worrying about making mistakes,” manager Vince Harrison Jr. said. “I just see our guys playing with more freedom. It is a game of failure, and it’s really easy to get in your head and not play with freedom and confidence.”
On Wednesday night, the Dragons made it 15 straight with an 11-6 victory over Lansing. Peyton Stovall batted in five runs, had three hits and homered.
The previous team record was set in 2002. The Dragons’ new record is the longest in the Midwest League since at least 2005 when Major League Baseball took over recordkeeping, and it’s the longest across all minor leagues during the past two seasons. The last record book the Midwest League produced cites a 17-game streak by Cedar Rapids in 1965 as the longest since the league formed in 1947 as the Illinois State League.
During the streak everything has clicked. Hits, double plays, great catches, great throws, stolen bases, you name it, have all contributed to putting the Dragons in position to win. And the pitching has been phenomenal with a 2.27 earned run average. The Dragons have allowed three runs or fewer in 12 of the 14 games and two runs or fewer eight times.
“They’re attacking the opposing team,” center fielder Carlos Jorge said. “When we score, they come out here and put zeroes on the scoreboard. That’s a big, big part of our success.”
The Dragons have also been better at the plate, led by Graham’s hot August and recent Midwest League player of the week award. They’ve routinely scored early runs and left it up to the pitchers.
The script was somewhat different Tuesday. The Dragons did jump out to their customary 2-0 lead with a run in the first inning and another the second. But the pitchers walked nine batters, and the defense made two errors that led to Lansing’s go-ahead run in the seventh inning. However, two double plays and three stolen-base attempts cut down by catcher Diego Omana minimized the damage that Lansing could have inflicted.
Three times during the home series against Peoria the Dragons won in walk-off style, twice in extra innings.
They found a way to win in their last at-bat again Tuesday. They scored two runs in the bottom of the eighth, one on a wild pitch, the second on a two-out single by Yerlin Confidan. A sacrifice bunt by Stephan was a catalyst after Peyton Stovall and Graham started the inning with singles.
“Four weeks ago, we don’t win that ballgame,” said Graham, who scored the go-ahead run. “But we’re playing for each other, making a play that can help the team. It’s not really about yourself.”
The streak has improved the Dragons to 27-31 in the season’s second half and moved them well out of last place ahead of Lansing and Fort Wayne. Their overall record of 48-75 has moved them out of the danger zone of the dubious accomplishment they were on pace for.
“That was a moment of clarity for us,” Graham said of that day in Lansing when they heard what their record meant. “We were pressing for wins and just trying too hard. We let go and just started playing for each other and not really worried about what the scoreboard said at the end of the game.”
The message from Harrison Jr. and his coaching staff to the players has remained consistent. And, for them, seeing the players’ buy-in means the development process of minor-league baseball is working.
“We haven’t changed what we do,” Harrison Jr. said. “There’s a belief inside there, and you just had to get it going. The message has been the same, the work, the intent has been the same. Nothing has changed. Players make plays, and they’ve done a great job of making plays and picking each other up.”
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